Abstract:

Today, achieving sustainable development is a key objective in which education plays a strategic role. Education is a decisive factor for human development, due to its political, social and cultural impact. This factor could influence the current development model and redirect it towards sustainability [1, 2].

Education for sustainability reflects the concern to train people in different competencies related to understanding what is happening (knowledge), integration into the society in which they live (learning to be) and knowing how to participate (learning to do ) to enable a more sustainable and fear society for all. In addition, education for sustainability must provide the ability and capacity to learn to learn. In this way, sustainable lifestyle patterns can be incorporated and produce changes. For these reasons, the idea of sustainable learning is emerging, in which the protagonist is the learner [3].

From many organizations, calls have been made for the introduction of sustainability at university level. At the international level, the Unesco Conferences [1, 4-5] and the Copernicus-Guidelines [6] help to incorporate the principles of sustainability in Higher Education. At national level, the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) has established the guidelines for the introduction of sustainability in teaching [7].

These documents match in pointing out that higher education is a key tool to achieve Sustainable Development; which means that the university has to train professionals capable of using their knowledge, not only in a scientific context, but also to respond to social and environmental needs.

The incorporation of the sustainable development objectives does not only consist on including environmental content in the syllabus of the different subjects. It also entails another series of more global changes that imply opening the university to society, promoting critical thinking, favoring practical activity and adopt a constructivist and diverse vision.

This work shows a proposal for incorporating sustainable skills in engineering degree subjects..

References:
[1] Education, UNESCO. Available online: https://en.www.unesco.org/education (accessed on 23 September 2020).
[2] C.L.G. Swee, K. Beay, “Educating for sustainability: Concepts and meanings of education for sustainability, “In Intrinsic Capability; World Scientific: Singapore, 2019.
[3] C. Rus-Casas, M.D. La Rubia, D. Eliche-Quesada, G. Jiménez-Castillo, J.D. Aguilar-Peña, "Online Tools for the Creation of Personal Learning Environments in Engineering Studies for Sustainable Learning," Sustainability vol. 13, 1179, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031179
[4] UNESCO (2005). Decenio de las Naciones Unidas de la Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible 2005- 2014: Plan de aplicación internacional. Proyecto. París: UNESCO.
[5] [UNESCO (2005). Initiating the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in Australia. Report of a National Symposium. Paris: Australian National Commission for UNESCO.
[6] COPERNICUS Guidelines for Sustainable Development in the European Higher Education Area https://unece.org/
[7] CRUE. https://www.crue.org/

Keywords:

Sustainable development, engineering subjects, skills.